This year my flashback will be in two part. First part will be summary of my activities during the year and second part is the review of the resolution for 2021. I will start with summary of my activities in 2021.
Year in Summary:
I started 2021 with a Panic. My Mother was just diagnosed with Cancer. She was very sick and we were not sure what to do. We then took her to India for cancer treatment. Despite Covid-19 pandemic and limited number of flights, I was going back and forth between Dhaka and Delhi at the beginning of January 2021. In total I stayed in Delhi, India for a month with my wife and parents for my mother’s treatment. During our stay, I took my family members to different historical places in Delhi and Agra. This was my first international tour with my family. Although we had heavy heart for my mother’s illness, we tried to make my mother feel good. My family and I returned to Dhaka at the end of January.
In February, my firm went though major restructuring and decided to step away from membership of the EY Network. Accordingly, I had to work hard to complete the ongoing tasks before cancellation of EY membership.
In March 2021, I visited India again which was my first solo international trip. Although it was very short tour, it was really amazing. In April 2021, my reporting supervisors and partner of the firm has decided to leave the partnership of the firm. This again put me in difficult position. I had to complete the ongoing audit engagements before their last working day.
In May 2021, I was promoted as Director- Assurance of the firm. I kept working for the firm but I had to report all the partners of firm as my client portfolio was distributed to the remaining partners of the firm. This was very challenging for me to maintaining multiple reporting line. However, I kept focusing on completing my audits and serving the clients in best possible way. There were lots of frustration and doubts within my team members about the future of the firm but I tried to keep them motivated.
In June 2021, I have bought my first car after many months of market research for brand, model and versions. Finally I decided to but a Toyota car (Axio Hybrid 2016 model). No other significant things I can remember for June 2021.
In July 2021, I decide to leave the firm. Although I already had plan to leave the firm by December 2021, there were some issues that triggered my decision to execute it early. After the first week of July, I resigned from position at Director-Assurance at A. Qasem & Co. Chartered Accountants with one month noticed. I joined Islam Hoque Hanif & Co. Chartered Accountants as Partner in August 2021. This was very courageous move for me as I was not sure whether I can take on this role. Also I was joining at a comparatively new firm with no confirmed revenue or client. But I believed I could take on this challenges.
In September I got permission from ICAB to start my public practice. My partner and I started communicating with previous clients and was able to secure some high profile clients. In October 2021, our firm connected with EY and got membership of EY Global Network. Since October 2021, our firm Islam Hoque Hanif & Co. Chartered Accountants has become full member firm of EY and started representing EY in Bangladesh. Later in November 2021, our firm signed formal membership agreement with EY and office lease agreement. By December 2021, our firm officially moved from a new address which is Same premises used by EY Consulting. In the same month, I also registered my first Articled Student with ICAB.
By mid-December my mother started to become more sick as her cancer progressed. I planned to fly her to Delhi again like December 2020.But her situation was not good enough to got her on board of flying. We were again in doubt about what to do. I ended the year 2021 with panic much like the panic I was at the beginning of the year. I believe cycle has now come in full.
Review of Resolutions for 2021:
I can remember that I wrote my new year resolution for 2021 in one of my flight to Delhi. In my new year resolutions, I included 15 items. lets see how much I managed to complete these resolutions.
1. Maintain a healthy and balanced life.
My first resolution was to maintain a healthy and balanced life. Balance life was in terms of maintaining work-life balance and maintaining connections with friends and family. During the year I have tried to maintain both. I kept my weight checked and below 100 KG (99.9 KG to be exact. never the less it is below 100 KG). I went for exercise and paly badminton every morning for almost everyday. As I had to wake up early in the morning to go to badminton field, it was very difficult for me to wake up till midnight. I slept early, work up early and exercised regularly. Kept my weight, blood pressure level, blood sugar level in check. So I believe I was able to maintain a healthy life (except for some days at the end of the year when I ate KFC almost everyday).
As for the balanced life, I was able to maintain till the first 6 month of the year. Things started to get little rough when I decided to change my career and resigned from my previous position as “Director-Assurance” at A. Qasem & Co. I worked hard to close the open engagements before I leave. So I had to work extra hours which effected my work-life balance. Later when I joined in a new CA firm as partner, I had to get engaged in various administrative works which also took a toll on my. On nutshell, I was able to maintain work-life balance for first six months of the year. but in later six month of the year, it was not possible for me to maintain the work-life balance.
2. Spend more time with family members and people close to you
I spent around a month at Delhi, India with just my parents and my wife while my mother was undergoing cancer treatment. During this time, I took leave from office any my involvement was very small. During this 1 month period, I spent almost every minutes with my family members. This is the first time I could go on places with my family after in a long wile. Apart from this, I also spent almost all my spare times with my family members until October 2021 when I started to get busy with my office work.
3. Participate in social and professional events.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, most of the social and professional events were either cancelled or help virtually over online meeting platforms. As planned for 2021, I still physically participated in several social and professional events organized by ICAB or different rotary clubs. However, most of the meetings and events were held on virtual perform mike Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meets etc. So I guess, I can safely comment that I can tick off the item from my resolution for 2021.
4. Recite Holy Quran at least once a week.
This certainly didn’t happened. Although I read and recited Holy Quran multiple times but I don’t think I was not able to read and recite holy Quran every week. This remains continuance resolution for 2022.
5. Read at least 20 books.
I planned for reading 20 books. But I could not. I have read about 10 books. I have already listed 5 of them in a separate blog post “Books I have read in 2021 – part 1“. I was writing 2nd part but couldn’t finish. I will complete it in next few days.
6. Write at least a blog per week.
So my plan was to write a blog per week which means 52 blogs in the entire year. However, I have published 15 blogs in total and 5 blogs are in drafting stage. So if I don’t consider the draft blogs, I am 37 blogs short. Not a good performance I would say. However! I have got 30K views of my blogs in this year which is around 25% higher than previous year.
7. Publish at least an article in professional journals.
This has been my plan for last 3/4 years. However, it didn’t happen. So in 2021, I started writing but couldn’t continue after the introduction part. So it certainly didn’t happened. So another item for list of incomplete resolutions.
8. Conduct training sessions/ professional discussion sessions.
In earlier years, I have facilitated in various inhouse training at my employer and in with other professional bodies like ICAB. In 2020, I presented my first CPD session at ICAB. So I planned to present another in 2021 or facilitate some more training sessions. However, because of Covid, all physical training sessions has been cancelled. However, I facilitated in few online training sessions during 2021. So I think I can tick off this as completed.
9. Spend time on continuing professional development.
Although I could not focus on the professional development of my choice. But I have participated in may professional development training sessions arranged by ICAB, CIMA and ICMAB. I have learned many new things from these training sessions. So I can safely say that this can be marked as complete.
10. Go places riding bicycle.
In 2020 I bought a bicycle for exploring surrounding and for exercise. I was looking for partner for riding around Dhaka during weekend but unfortunately I found none. Although I joined a cycling community which goes for cycling around the country, I have not participated in any event. I used my bicycle several times for exercise purpose. My rides were mostly limited with in Mohammadpur and Agargaon area. I will consider this one as incomplete as well.
11. Travel 3/4 places within and outside country.
I love travelling. Every year I plan to visit few places within and outside the country. In 2021, I visited India for my mother’s treatment. During my stay at Delhi India, I visited popular attractions at Delhi like Qutub Minar, India Gate, Humayun’s Tomb etc. I have also visited Taj Mahal in Agra. In March 2021, I had my first international solo travel. I roamed though Delhi City and visited several places with Delhi NCR. I tasted street foods and met with several amazing people. As for local travel, I also visited Chittagong and Chandpur within Bangladesh. But I shall not count them as they are my frequent place of visit. Overall, I will mark this resolution as complete.
12. Give maximum efforts on the unattained goals.
I had several plans for this year. First one is to switch the employer as I had already employed for nearly 10 years and I felt like I need to broaden my horizon and take on new responsibilities. In August 2021, I left my position at Director-Assurance at A. Qasem & Co. Chartered Accountants to join Islam Hoque Hanif & Co. Chartered Accountants as Partner. In 2021, I also had planned to start either CISA/ CBV/ Actuary. Unfortunately I could not start neither of them. But I still plant to do in near future. As for the resolution, I believe it is partially completed.
13. Do and learn something new.
I was thinking about what to write here. I specifically didn’t learn or do something new like earlier years. Later I remembered I started joined in a CA firm/ audit firm as partner and started practicing as professional accounted/ Auditor. So I guess this can be counted as doing something new as I have not been a practicing accountant ever before.
14. Change at least one person’s life for better.
Well this is hard to say. I am not sure whether I was able to change any one’s life for better during 2021. Well I tried to do so. I have sponsored scholarship to two persons which may support to continuance of their study. This may contribute to change their life for better. I also provided some career consultation to few persons guiding them for their career planning. This might also be helpful to change some person’s life better. So overall, this might be treated as “Resolution complete”.
15. Sponsor scholarship for at least one deserving student.
I had planned to sponsor scholarship for deserving students. Initially I planned for offering scholarship to primary school students at rural level though my rotary club. Later, I have decided to provide some financial support to a Student of Madrasa who is pursuing to be Quran Hafez. I have also co-sponsored a scholarship for a CA student which involved bearing registration cost at ICAB. I have large scale plan of scholarship in near future. For now I am ticking off this resolution as complete.
Overall evaluation, I have kept few resolutions unchecked. This year was challenging enough for me to complete all these resolutions. I went though lots of turmoil during 2021 with my mother’s illness, restructuring within my employer, change of career. But still I managed to complete most of the resolution. 2021 was very important year in my life. I have achieved many things this this year and also faced lots of difficulties unlike past years. I believe 2021 was another milestone that has shaped my future significantly for better or worse.